


How to Save a Life

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drama, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-21
Updated: 2007-08-28
Packaged: 2019-01-19 16:01:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12413370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: Eight events in the life of James Potter. FOUR: He leaned forward, lips brushing the nape of her neck, his way of telling her that last night wasn't a lie and he wasn't going anywhere.





	1. Fireworks

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

_You’ve heard about it, but seeing it for the first time…it just takes your breath away._

**O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O**

He wasn’t the only one that was awed into silence when they came around the corner of the lake and saw the school for the first time ever; a huge, fairytale-like castle with glowing windows and real balconies. A redheaded girl in the boat next to him gasped out loud, and a boy in his boat nearly dropped the lit firework he’d been planning to use on the legendary poltergeist once they got up to the school. Within a moment he had regained his composure, though, and leaned back as cockily as his eleven-year-old self could, rolling his eyes at the utterly juvenile reactions his year mates were having. 

“It’s just a castle, not a Muggle subway!” he called coolly from his indolent position against the side of the boat. 

The redhead turned towards him, her eyes narrowed. He thought she looked like a snake. “Yes, because a huge magical castle in the middle of _nowhere_ is so common and a Muggle subway is just one in a million!” she snapped sarcastically. Scattered laughter drifted across the water. He scowled. 

“And I wonder how _you_ would know that,” he sneered. 

“What’s that supposed to men?” the girl challenged immediately. 

“Now that’s enough!” an authoritive voice called gruffly from the first boat. He couldn’t remember what teacher it belonged to, but he settled down sulkily, still sore that a mere girl had bested him. The boy in his boat leaned forward, his face sporting a mischievous grin. 

“Hey,” he said, his tone light and full of fun. “How about we forget the poltergeist and stick it down _her_ jumper instead?” He gestured to the firework in his hand and raised his eyebrows impishly. “You up for it?” 

He risked another glance at the girl, who was now talking quietly to a blonde girl in her boat. His gaze flicked back to Firework Boy and he smiled, a mischievous grin spreading up his face. “I’m in.” 

And so it was, ten minutes later, that he found himself being slapped in the face for the very first time by the redhead with startling green eyes, getting his first detention ever from a strict professor that pulled him out among gales of laughter, and making his very first friend while serving that detention. 

Just as he walked back into the Great Hall, he looked up and thought to himself, 

_Welcome to Hogwarts._


	2. Green Eyes

_She whips around in the hallway, red hair flying across her face, eyes glinting with fury. Somehow you never imagined her reaction to be this like this – but hell, who had ever turned down James Potter? So you resolve not to worry._

**O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O**

“So what about it, Evans?” he said, sticking his hands in his pockets and leaning as languidly as he could (for a fourteen-year-old, that is) against a suit of armor. “You, me, Hogsmeade?” He waited impatiently for her to affirm his request. Ever since he discovered that girls didn't, in fact, have germs, he'd noticed the redhead with the bright eyes and decided to give her a go. Of course, he wasn't really the boyfriend-type but there was nothing wrong about casual snogging with a pretty girl he knew nothing about.

“I’m not sure I heard you correctly, Potter,” she said slowly. Somehow he failed to notice that her tone was cold and unforgiving, nothing like that of a girl who was about to say yes to a date proposal.

“Exactly what I said, Evans,” he said, almost rolling his eyes. Honestly, _this_ was the girl that was supposed to be top of their class? Perhaps she was bribing the professors. She definitely didn’t seem too bright now that he was actually having a conversation with her.

“So let me get this straight,” she said, walking forward with slow, deliberate steps until she was only a yard away from him. She crossed her arms against her chest and said, her voice sickeningly sweet and almost making him gag, “After three years of pranking me, making fun of me, and calling me names…” He winced but said nothing, her horrible buttery tone lulling him into a false sense of security. “You’ve suddenly realized that you want to go out with me?”

He raised an eyebrow in affirmation, flashing her a charming grin that never failed to send girls swooning.

All at once she wasn't smiling anymore and the sweet, annoying tone had turned to ice. “Next time you try asking a girl out, _Potter_ , try at least to pretend to show her some respect. Calling her by her last name doesn’t seem to do the trick.” And then she turned around and walked briskly away, leaving him open-mouthed and humiliated in the middle of a crowded hallway.

For the first time, bright eyes he dimly realized to be green burned brightly in his vision, leaving his countenance stranded and gaping after her suddenly attractive figure. All of the sudden she wasn't just pretty anymore; she wasn't anonymous. She was very, very significant.

_She was the only one that refused._


	3. Growing Up

“ _You’ve changed,” she whispers, before leaning over and pressing her lips to yours._

**O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O**

It came as a surprise to all of them when he’d received his school letter for the coming spring and found the enclosed Head Boy badge. In fact, the first words out of his supposedly best friend’s mouth had gone something like,

“Dumbledore made _you_ Head Boy? I was right, he is going barmy!”

Even if Dumbledore was barmy, though, he still got the position, and to his utmost delight the Head Girl was none other than Lily Evans. The prior year to that he'd began lessening his pranks against the Slytherins and throwing fewer hexes out in the corridors, Lily's words from fifth year (and, indeed, _every_ year) striking a little too close for comfort. From his point of view, that explanation was the only one that gave convincing evidence of his appointment as a supposedly responsible student.

Faced with the prospect of responsibility, he did not, as Lily Evans expected of him, withdraw from his tasks and leave all the work for her to do. Instead he contributed as well as he could, making every meeting, calculating weekly points, and otherwise helping her as best as he could. After a while, it became clear to the aforementioned Head Girl that he was no longer the arrogant prat she refuse to date throughout the past several years. He started to get to know her behind the pretty, hot-tempered exterior, making his initial interest in her rise until he felt his stomach lurch uncomfortably every time her eyes caught his. His friends just rolled their eyes, pronounced him a lost case, and made sure to refrain from mentioning her name due to the glassy-eyed reaction it gained.

Even then he never went so far as to ask her out on a date. He flirted openly, spent time with her outside of class, and waved to her in the hallways, but he never did dare test his chances. A risk-taker his entire life, he was afraid of the red-headed wonder like every timid second-year would be on his first date; afraid that everything he had worked for would disappear with his fervent proclamation. Gradually, she began to approach him in a different manner, participating freely in his flirtatious banter and occasionally glancing at him with a wistful grin and a faraway look in her eye. He never noticed, though, and when his smirking friends mentioned it he immediately chalked it up to teasing.

It was during patrols that the missing pieces finally clicked together. Done clearing out the North Tower of stragglers, they stayed for a few minutes, neither quite knowing why, leaning out on the balcony. The sun had long since passed the horizon and the cerulean sky had faded into midnight, highlighting the darkened silhouettes in the Forbidden Forest. Their hushed voices, quiet as they were, echoed eerily across the room and down the stairs to the corridor below.

“Do you ever worry about what’ll happen when we leave Hogwarts?” she said. He knew that, despite the casual air of the question, she was looking for more than a quick affirmation.

“Sure I do,” he said quietly, letting his eyes wander over the lake and the forest before shifting back to her face. “You-Know-Who is gaining power every day, and I know that my family is directly in his path. I worry about them all the time. And all these Muggles and Muggleborn he’s targeting…” He expelled a deep breath, throwing her a surreptitious look. “I just want to get in the fight to try and help people, you know? But sometimes I wonder if that’s not enough.” He paused for a brief moment, studying the melded shadows their bodies made against the tiled floor. “But I do know one thing,” he said, looking up and meeting her gaze again. “I’ll do anything and everything I can to help, even if it doesn’t make a difference. Because even if the fight seems hopeless sometimes, I know that good will triumph in the end. Even if I don’t live to see it.”

He felt foolish by the time he finished, wondering if he had sounded terribly cryptic or grim, _knowing_ that he sounded ridiculously idealistic, but when he risked a glance up to her face she was looking at him with a mixture of awe and gratitude rather than the disgust he had expected. Before he knew what had happened, her arms were thrown around his neck in an impulsive hug, breathing deeply into his shoulder as if to steady her breaths. It took him a moment to react, hesitantly wrapping his arms around her waist and drawing her closer. Her empowering scent, so flowery and musky and utterly _Lily,_ sent his emotions into a panic and caused his breathing to steadily increase until it was almost impossible to conceal it. When he opened his eyes, involuntarily shut with the closeness of her body, he found that she had drawn back a bit and was now gazing straight at him, her head tilted up so she would be able to see him better.

“That’s…really noble, James,” she said softly, and he had to avert his eyes as the impulse to kiss her rose until he could hardly stand it. Her face was mere inches from his now, and he could see every freckle on her nose, every curling eyelash. “You just…you’ve changed so much, over this last year.” His eyes found hers again, capturing the emerald orbs in the moonlight. He swallowed visibly, wishing she wasn’t so goddamned beautiful. “You’re not - not a boy anymore.” Her hand grazed his cheek briefly, lightly, innocently, and he had to force himself to bite back a groan. His eyes searched hers, dark brandy in color and jaded with burning feeling, wondering desperately if her motives were anything akin to his. “James,” she breathed again, her eyes flicking up to his before landing on his lips, and this time, she tentatively leaned forward, brushing her mouth against his softly.

His senses dull with the shock of the new feeling of Lily's lips against his, it took a moment before the warmth spread through his arms and stomach, weighed down by the euphoria that she kissed him first. One of his hands reached tentatively, shakily, to brush her cheek while the other slid around to the small of her back. Her lips were soft and sweet against his mouth, but before he could taste them properly she drew back, her eyes closed and her breath heavy, a blush adorning her freckled cheeks. "I - I'm sorry, I don't know what - " she started to say, her voice laden with shame, but he didn't allow her to finish. Leaning down and tilting his head, he breathed, " _You're so beautiful_ ," into her ear before kissing it lightly and then moving on to her mouth, his lips crashing almost violently into hers, biting at her lower lip and demanding a deeper response. She stiffened for the briefest of moments before fairly melting against him, opening her mouth and allowing him to taste her, his tongue brushing her lips and her teeth and then her mouth. He broke away a few moments later, his breath ragged and his eyes hooded, only to pull her forward again, his hands threading through her hair and gripping her waist, murmuring husky praises in her ear as he kissed and nipped at her neck.

Much later, when the moon reached its highest point in the sky and the outlines of the trees were impossible to see, he pulled her against him again, this time resting his head into the crook of her neck and breathing softly into her shoulder. “Does this mean you’ll go to Hogsmeade with me?” he said, his light tone barely making up for the tremor of brief anxiety that shuddered in his chest.

It was at this moment, for the first time in four years, that he didn’t receive a slap on the face or a vicious retort or a cold silence. This time, for the first time, Lily Evans said yes, and in that moment, when he kissed her, he realized what had caused her change of heart, what had finally made her see.

_He finally grew to be a man._

**O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O**


	4. Light

_The sun breaks through the crack in the curtains, lighting her fanned out hair to glow around her head like a golden halo. Last night spoke amazing, but this morning whispered heaven._

**O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O**

He didn’t remember quite how it started, but now that he saw how beautiful she looked splayed out across his bed he found he didn’t care. All he knew that she was at long last finally his - his to hold, his to kiss, his to love.

Seeing her stir slightly under the beam of golden sunlight crisscrossing from the window, he rolled over and gently pulled back a strand of hair from her face. She turned around groggily, and when she saw his face and remembered where she was, she immediately turned away from him, a blush spreading up her cheeks. He leaned forward, lips brushing the nape of her neck, his way of telling her that last night wasn't a lie and he wasn't going anywhere. Gradually her shoulders loosened and she leaned back into him, although her tight hold on the covers remained firm.

He flipped her around and leaned over her, kissing her softly and whispering, “I love you,” into her mouth.

“You too,” she whispered, burrowing herself deeper into his shoulder and expelling a muffled sigh of content.

His gaze drifted from her face to rove over the delicate curves of her body, hidden sloppily by the comforter draped over their bodies. He stiffened slightly as her leg brushed against his knee, sending memories of the previous night catipulting through his mind and making him blush.

“James,” he heard her mumble against his chest, looking up blearily with pools of emerald light. “James, is anything wrong?”

He smiled again and pressed his lips to her forehead. “Just thinking about how beautiful you are,” he said honestly, earning a rosy blush. He leaned down and kissed her again, less soft and more demanding, before an unpleasant thought surfaced in his mind.

“Oh bugger,” he groaned, drawing away from her very suddenly and peeling away the covers to get dressed.

“What’s wrong?” she said groggily, propping herself up by his pillow and looking at him, hair mussed and eyes smudged with black. If anything, it only heightened his attraction to her.

“Class in thirty minutes,” he reminded her. He finished pulling on his slacks and dropped back next to her over the sheets, adjusting his face into a pitiful smile. “Meet me for lunch?”

She smiled and groaned simultaneously, dropping backwards on the mattress before sitting back up and sliding her legs over the side of the bed. "Sure," she yawned, accepting the large shirt he tossed to her and pulling it on with her back to him, successfully obstructing his view. He frowned.

" _Lily..._ "

"Have you seen my robes?" she asked, a smile in her voice. He drank in the view as she stood up, pale legs long and limber under the morning light. He pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose and grinned up at her, replying cheekily, "I dunno, could be anywhere between our rooms." He caught her wrist as she attempted to hit him with a pillow and pulled her closer, lightly kissing the sensitive skin on her palm. 

"James," she said slowly, weakly, as though she were trying to work something out in her head.

He sighed resignedly and stood up again, fitting his robes around his shoulders and grinning at her lopsidedly. "I suppose I'll just see you in Transfiguration, then," he said. She laughed and kissed him lingeringly on his cheeks, her breath hot against his skin. "All right," she whispered, her voice husky from the early hour still.

As he watched her pick her way across his messy room, an extra pair of his robes draped over her shoulders, he smiled, perhaps realizing for the first time that nothing really changed between them. Now he was a bit more mature and she a bit more forgiving, but she was still stubborn as hell, and he still knew better than to disagree, and in spite of what any outsider said, they were still Lily and James. Only one thing had truly changed.

_The were in love._

**O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O** o **O**

A/N: Well, I don't write R or NC-17 scenes, mostly because I'm much too young to actually know how those go, so that part isn't included in this chapter. I would think by now that any reader would notice the recurring concept of "firsts" in this piece and, as such, I assumed that this was a vital part to include. Anyway, this chapter is about as sensual as it gets (not that it's much), and that's not about to change. Sorry to anyone looking for more.

 


End file.
